


Heartless

by Rainewritesfanfics



Series: Chat Blanc [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat Blanc - Freeform, F/F, F/M, Family, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-02 13:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20276788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainewritesfanfics/pseuds/Rainewritesfanfics
Summary: Nathalie wakes up the morning after Gabriel’s death with a pounding headache and a whole lot of guilt.





	Heartless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [V_fics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/V_fics/gifts).

Nathalie had awoken to a cold sweat and a pounding head.

When she sat up, she realized she was not alone. Fear tensed her slender shoulders before she realized the figure was too broad to be Blanc.

Instead, she saw her colleague come into focus as she slid her glasses onto her nose.

"Gabriel?" she asked, pushing past the lump in her throat. "Is he-?"

He shook his head, and Nathalie felt her world tilt. "Oh god," she breathed, clenching her shaking fists as strands of her dyed hair slipped over her shoulder. "What have we done?" Tears welled up in her eyes, and she bit the side of her hand to stifle the sobs.

The hulking man came over and sat on the edge of the bed so Nathalie could cry on his shoulder.

He silently stroked her loose hair and stared at a blank spot on the wall. 

When her sobs subsided and she withdrew in on herself, he grunted to get her attention.

"What?" she groaned.

He scowled and started to sign, 'Gabriel dead. Adrien loose with ring and pin. We must save.'

Nathalie turned away, not wanting to see what else he had to say. "He's dangerous. He'd kill you and I without a second thought." She glanced at the family portrait on her bedside table. Maybe love was worthless after all. It hadn’t saved anyone. "He killed Ladybug,” she snapped before he could continue. “Don’t you get it!”

He grumbled and shifted until she was forced to watch his hands again. 

Nathalie sighed. "Yes, he is family. Of course I hate doing nothing! But what would you have me do?" She watched his hands and then let out a hollow laugh. "Tell those children? The other heroes were already helpless to stop him, even with Ladybug alive. They certainly can't stop him now."

His hands grew faster with agitation, and Nathalie struggled to keep up, "If Gabriel was butterf- oh, Hawkmoth, then you were peacock... Yes, I was Mayura," she admitted under his disapproving look. 

His eyes hardened. ‘You were part of the mess. You fix it.’

“It’s not that simple. The peacock miraculous is hardly strong enough to take on the Cat." She looked down at her hands. "And, even if it was, the peacock miraculous is damaged.” She could feel the phantom pain running along her veins and rattling in her lungs. “I don't know if I could wield it long enough to stop him. It's the reason Emilie is in that coffin, you know."

The bodyguard's face softened. He tilted her chin up with one finger. 'Give me the pin,' he encouraged. 'I'm strong.'

Nathalie's eyes widened. "No." She shook her head vigorously. "I won’t lose you, too. You’re all I have left.”

'Please,' he signed over and over. 'For Adrien. For Emilie.'

“Don’t bring her into this,” she begged.

His face was sympathetic, but his hands were ruthless. ‘She would hate this. You know that. Her son.’

Nathalie bit her lip against the tears, before sighing and throwing the pillow over her face. "Let me think about it.”

She heard his hopeful grunt, and after a few minutes of silence, his footsteps retreated, and the door closed with a click.

As soon as he was gone, she lifted the pillow from her face and rolled to look at the family portrait once more.

The loves of her life were gone now, and only their son remained. Nathalie knew she couldn't leave Adrien akumatized and running wild. 

If Emilie only knew the thing she and Gabriel had done... they really were monsters. Saying that they were doing it all for Adrien. To give him back his mother. Maybe Gabriel had believed it, but Nathalie wasn't quite so delusional. She had calculated everything. Everything except Adrien being Chat Noir.

She had wanted Emilie back. She had wanted their family to be whole. And now? Now, it was irreparably broken.

Emilie must be devastated, she thought. If her lover was looking down on her from Heaven, it might even be with scorn.

Nathalie pushed herself up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Adrien was her family, too. She had been there his whole life. She had watched him grow, learn, love, and smile. 

But she had been failing him for years now, living up to her last name. Heartless. She had pulled away from him when Emilie died. Just like Gabriel had. Unable to bear the likeness they shared. How selfish of her and of Gabriel. 

They were supposed to be the adults, and yet they took their grief out on their child.

When she looked at her palms, she could almost see the blood. Ladybug's blood. Paris's blood. Gabriel's.

Her fingers curled into fists, and she looked up with renewed purpose. 

She refused to let this be the end. She would save Adrien. 

She pushed herself onto shaking legs and raised her chin. 

When she had limped her way to the atrium, she gazed up at the gilded portrait. "I will save him, Emilie. I swear it."

With that, she pressed the buttons on the painting and picked up the last item she wanted to see right now.

"Duusu, transform me."

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to explore the dynamic between these two, and maybe build on the Agreste household prior to Emilie’s passing (or coma, we don’t know in canon).


End file.
